


Where Would You Go?

by TaylorMade



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: I left that part vague, Maybe the Thirteenth Doctor, Unspecified Lady Doctor, We'll say it's Thirteen but you can say it's a different Lady Doctor if you want
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-24 22:53:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20713865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaylorMade/pseuds/TaylorMade
Summary: With all of Time and Space to choose from, this is where I would go.





	Where Would You Go?

I smiled as soon as I saw it.

I couldn't help it. It was the kind of instant, unbridled joy a child feels when a puppy enters the room. Pure and impossible... But it was there. It was _right there!_ That beautiful bringer if hope, the Ghost Monument, that perfect little blue box... The TARDIS... It was there, right in front of me - my impossible dream come true!

Of course, reason took over half a breath later. Someone made a replica, probably just for fun. The best case real-world scenario would be that the show would be filming nearby and I might get to meet the cast. I sighed heavily and pressed my hand and forehead against the wood door. There was no one around, so I sank to the ground and slumped against the box. A dread, deep and ancient, weighed down on me. A momentary fleeting fancy would never rescue me. It was just another hope crushed before my eyes.

"Why can't it ever just be _real_?" I moaned into my hands.

With another sigh, I leaned my head back, desperate to touch any part of that fiction for as long as I could. I shut my eyes and tried to imagine it, all the while battling to keep all the familiar despairs at bay.

"Where would you go if it were?"

The voice startled me. I looked up at a woman with eyes unlike any I'd ever seen. I could tell at a glance they'd seen too much to be human. I shook off that thought. No good could come of more unrealistic hope. I gave her a sad smile.

"You'd laugh."

"I won't," she promised solemnly as she sat next to me. "Cross my hearts."

I couldn't help but grin at her joke. She nudged my shoulder with her own and a quiet peace settled over me. "Tell me."

"Inside," I heard myself answer.

She blinked. "Then where?" She had a befuddled tone in her voice. Clearly, in order to travel through time and space, I would enter the TARDIS.

"That's it," I shrugged. "Just... Inside."

She looked curious, so I elaborated. "I'd take everything I own, my dogs and cat... The TARDIS is intelligent. She could create a space in there to suit my needs and I'd never have to come out or see anyone unless I felt like it. I could go on an adventure with the Doctor if I wanted to. Or, if I wasn't in the mood to tag along, I could keep the TARDIS company and be waiting there with a first aid kit, a hot pizza, and a sympathetic ear if it's needed."

"And which regeneration d'you imagine yourself tagging along with?"

"I'm not picky," I replied. "The Doctor is the Doctor. So why would it matter? All a regeneration would really alter is the Doctor's age, right?"

"And what else would you do, while you're inside?"

"Read, write... Spend some real time with my pets... Improve on my knitting skills. Knitting blankets would be nice. The Doctor could give them to anyone who needs them and there would be little bits of my stitch work all through time and space... Does that sound stupid?"

"Kindness is never stupid."

"Tell my boss that."

"Where do you work?"

"A hotel. Front desk. God, I hate it... People think you're there for them to abuse, I think. I had a guest get mad at me because I wouldn't make the guys driving the eighteen wheelers park in another business's lot."

"And these truck drivers, they worked for the hotel? Delivering supplies?"

"No, they were guests, too. Regulars, stopping along their routes for the night. I hate that hotel... If I didn't need money, I'd never go back again."

She hummed and a far away expression crossed her face.

"Sounds as if you'd like to make the TARDIS your home..."

It was my turn to hum. She watched me for awhile before she broke the silence again.

"What are you thinking about right now?"

"Remembering..."

"What are you remembering?"

"She probably doesn't even remember it... Probably wrote it off as one of those _'funny little things that kids say'_... But when I was a little girl, I was out in the yard, looking up at the stars with my mother... And I asked her which one was mine. And she laughed at me and asked which one I wanted."

"But you weren't asking if you could have one," she stated shrewdly.

"I wanted to go home! I've never belonged here. I thought I must've come from someplace _out there_... Sounds stupid, right?"

"No."

I gave her a sidelong look and found her studying me. She didn't stop when she saw I'd seen. I gave her credit for that. Instead, she locked her eyes firmly on mine. "You still feel that way." It was not a question. Nor was it a statement I could refute. "Ever thought about going out there to find out?"

"Sure." I laughed. "But, unfortunately, I don't have a TARDIS."

"Yeah, you do." She stood and yanked me to my feet. I didn't have time to react before she shoved me into the door of the replica. I braced for the impact of the far wall.

Except...

I never hit it.

I froze and stared at the impossible expanse in front of me. The crystalline control station loomed ahead. I could have sworn I felt the ship laugh gently. I opened my mouth - perhaps to speak, to exclaim that it _really was _bigger on the inside, but instead, I burst into tears. The woman - _the Doctor!_ \- must have sensed that I don't like to be touched when I'm emotional. She stuck her hands in her pockets, ducked her head and kicked at an imaginary pebble, keeping her distance until I composed myself.

"So," she said brightly as I wiped at my face. "Which way to pick up your pets and possessions?"


End file.
